Exploitedis a pseudo documentary that revolves around an aspiring model named Mercedes, who’s obsession with fame leads to a drug infused downward spiral that nearly consumes her.Content wise this film follows your standard documentary structure. The Protagonist a young woman named Mercedes sets out to be model that appears in fashion type magazine. The first crack in her emotional psyche comes when a agent tells her that her look is not right for mainstream, it is too edgy. From there she delves into the world of car modeling and while lucrative at first, she quickly moves on the next thing, bondage modeling. Of course along the way she picks up a nasty drug habit and in no time she dives head first into the world of pornography.

The look of this production is rooted in documentary style filmmaking. Which suits the rough and ready vibe of this production. It should be noted that while ‘simulated’ pornographic content appears this production, it is always obscured by black boxes. Another ‘technique’ that this production employs is obscuring the faces of some the individuals that appear in this film.

Without a doubt the hardest area of this production to gauge is the performances. For the most part most of the cast are convincing enough, with only a few minor performances coming off as too staged. Of course the performance that matters the most, would be that of Mercedes in the role of the film’s protagonist. Unfortunately she gives monotone performance that fails to give a well rounded view of the character she is playing. To her credit she is at her best when her character is being degraded. Her most memorable moment involves a porn shoot with Ron Jeremy. In which she get’s sick and is sent how because she is too intoxicated to perform.

There are an abundance of rise and fall stories throughout the history of cinema. And just about every type of story has been told in this regard. And while there is a familiarity to the story at hand, this is not ultimately this film’s biggest short coming. That would befall it’s unsympathetic protagonist, who even in redemption is difficult to empathize with.

The DVD:

Exploited is presented in a letterboxed widescreen that retains it’s original aspect ratio. The image tends to look soft, edge enhancement varies in degree throughout and black levels are adequate at best.

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. There is background noise that varies in degree throughout and some mild instances of distortion. Even though dialog generally comes through clearly, there are a handful of instances where the audio sounds flat.

Extras for this release include a trailer for the film, a image slideshow, deleted scenes, a segment titled ‘Ron Jeremy’s Magic Trick’ and trailers for other titles also available on DVD from Independent Entertainment. Overall Exploited gets a serviceable audio / video presentation from Independent Entertainment.